Comentarios

I used this activity with my pre-service elementary teachers. They did well until the Lunar Lander section. When trying to apply conservation of energy to the Lunar Lander while landing (adding some thrust), students had a very hard time. It was clear that they did not have a strong understanding of gravitational potential eenrgy and kinetic energy when they got to this point - BUT they thought they knew. I had to spend a class period after this working through energy conservation by analyzing the skater at different positions on the track. There was good discussion between students so the activity seemed to be a good primer for this.5/11/10Wendy Adams

The activity only took 35 minutes.5/11/10Wendy Adams

The kids really enjoyed the skater and the pendulum. The Lunar Lander caused more frustration than anything so I'd suggest eliminating that one. Other than that, great activity. It took about 15-25 minutes for 8th graders (15 mins for advanced and 25 for intervention students). It really was nice to have this activity to break up the depth of understanding that is needed for our energy unit. It was great to see the students having fun and learning about potential and kinetic energy.7/02/12Rachel Prokopchuk